Background
The idea for Blue Owl Brewing comes from Jeff Young and Suzy Shaffer, alums of Black Star Co-op. Along with the help of mechanical engineer Davy Pasternak, Blue Owl opened its doors in October of 2015. Blue Owl, the first brewery to exclusively make, distribute, and sell sour-mash beers in the United Sates produces only sour-mashed beer. Jeff Young designed a specialized piece of equipment, the MIU (Modular Inoculation Unit, pronounced “mew”), that efficiently and consistently uses naturally occurring Lactobacilli found on their barley to achieve the desired level of acidity on the wort prior to fermentation. This method, which achieves the sour flavor desired in the beer usually within 18-72 hours, is much faster than the barrel process that takes months or years.
After leaving the mash/lauter tun, the wort drains into the kettle/sour tun. The MIU, a subchamber of the sour tun, introduces lactobacilli into the wort. It’s then held in the sour tun for where the Lactobacilli do their work. When the desired pH is achieved the wort moves into the fermenter, where it becomes alcohol. Then it’s off to the bright tank to be carbonated and held for canning or kegging.
Experience
The Blue Owl Brewing tasting room, located in a residential area has a bar, several tables and sofa’s inside and an outdoor patio area. For $15 they they offer a branded Blue Owl Glass, and up to four 12 oz. pours of beer. We really enjoyed the Spirit Animal their sour pale, Little Boss the Sour Session ale and Czech Czeck the sour pilsner. When in Austin, you have to check Blue Owl out.
No nearby lodging noted. There is no on site food available, just good sour mash beer.
When in Austin check out Zilker Brewing and Southern Heights Brewing !
